Guardian Metal Resources Plc press release
EMX Royalty Announces Year-End Financial Results; Record Adjusted Royalty Revenue; and Positive Outlook for 2025
OTC - OTC Markets · United Kingdom
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 12, 2025) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSXV: EMX) (the"Company" or"EMX")is pleased to report results for the year ended December 31, 2024. For the year, EMX delivered revenue and other income of $27.4 million, adjusted revenue and other income1of $36.7 million, adjusted royalty revenue1of $33.1 million and adjusted EBITDA1of $19.2 million, and ended the year with excellent liquidity.
Dave Cole, EMX CEO, commented, "2024 was a transformational year for EMX. We achieved record-high adjusted royalty revenue, secured a royalty expansion at Caserones, and strengthened our financial position through disciplined capital management and opportunistic share buybacks. With Caserones, Timok, Leeville and Gediktepe performing well, and with a strong balance sheet, we enter 2025 with good momentum. Further, I anticipate a reduction in our cash operating expenditures in 2025 of more than $3.0 million."
2024 Financial Highlights
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Adjusted revenue and other income1of $36.7 million, up 14%2over prior year;
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Adjusted royalty revenue1of $33.1 million, up 28%2over prior year;
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Adjusted EBITDA1of $19.2 million, up 21%2over prior year, demonstrating strong cash flow conversion;
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Adjusted operating cash flow1of $13.6 million, up 46%2over prior year; and
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Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2024 of $26.8 million and a working capital surplus1of $41.5 million, demonstrating financial flexibility for growth.
Financial Summaryfor the Three Months and Year EndedDecember 31, 2024:
| | | For the three months ended December 31, | | | For the year ended December 31, | | | | | | | | | (In thousands) | | 2024 | | | 2023 | | | 2024 | | | 2023 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Statement of Income | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Revenue and other income | $ | 8,176 | | $ | 7,546 | | $ | 27,448 | | $ | 26,621 | | | General and administrative | $ | (1,705 | ) | $ | (1,383 | ) | $ | (7,084 | ) | $ | (6,045 | ) | | Royalty generation and project evaluation costs, net | $ | (2,053 | ) | $ | (2,279 | ) | $ | (10,984 | ) | $ | (10,806 | ) | | Net income (loss) | $ | 1,767 | | $ | 1,374 | | $ | (3,288 | ) | $ | (4,633 | ) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Statement of Cash Flows | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cash flows from operating activities | $ | 6,492 | | $ | 4,272 | | $ | 6,818 | | $ | 7,059 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Non-IFRS Financial Measures1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Adjusted revenue and other income | $ | 10,000 | | $ | 10,920 | | $ | 36,711 | | $ | 37,028 | | | Adjusted royalty revenue | $ | 8,757 | | $ | 8,743 | | $ | 33,067 | | $ | 30,694 | | | Adjusted cash flows from operating activities | $ | 7,828 | | $ | 6,192 | | $ | 13,590 | | $ | 14,072 | | | EBITDA | $ | 6,258 | | $ | 2,123 | | $ | 10,903 | | $ | 6,944 | | | Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 6,287 | | $ | 7,279 | | $ | 19,220 | | $ | 20,668 | | | GEOs sold | | 3,290 | | | 4,424 | | | 13,897 | | | 15,782 | |
[1]Refer to the "Non-IFRS financial measures" section below or on page 44 of the Q4 2024 MD&A for more information on each non-IFRS financial measure. These non-IFRS measures are not standardized financial measures under the financial reporting framework used to prepare the financial statements to which the measures relates and might not be comparable to similar financial measures disclosed by other issuers. [2]Excluding $4.8 million in catch-up payments received in 2023 from the Timok royalty that relate to prior periods (2021 - $1.6 million, 2022 - $3.2 million).
Key Strategic Developments
During the year ended December 31, 2024, and the period subsequent to year end, EMX has completed several key transactions that demonstrate our strategy of incremental revenue growth and disciplined capital management as we move into 2025. These key developments include:
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We increased our (effective) net smelter return ("NSR") royalty in the Caserones property from 0.7775% to 0.8306%;
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Refinanced our corporate debt into a long-term senior secured term loan with Franco-Nevada Corporation maturing in July 2029;
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In September 2024, the Company announced the appointment of Mr. Stefan L. Wenger as Chief Financial Officer effective October 1, 2024. Mr. Wenger was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Royal Gold, Inc., one of the mining industry's leading royalty companies, from 2006 to 2018;
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Completed the acquisition of a 2% NSR royalty on the Chapi Copper Mine in Peru for a total purchase price of $10 million, which we expect will begin contributing revenue to EMX in 2026; and
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We repurchased and cancelled 5,000,000 shares over the past twelve months, representing approximately 4.44% of issued and outstanding shares.
2024 Results and 2025 Guidance
Please see our MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2024 for more details on our guidance and see "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Future-Oriented Financial Information" below.
GEO Sales and Revenue Guidance
The following is the Company's 2025 guidance and an evaluation of the Company's 2024 performance compared to our 2024 Guidance:
| | 2025 Guidance1 | 2024 Results | 2024 Guidance2 | | GEO sales3 | 10,000 to 12,000 | 13,897 | 11,000 to 14,000 | | Adjusted royalty revenue3 | $26,000,000 to $32,000,000 | $33,067,000 | $22,000,000 to $27,500,000 | | Option and other property income | $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 | $1,724,000 | $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 |
For 2024, strong performances during the year were marked by all producing royalties including Gediktepe, Caserones, Timok, and Leeville. This resulted in the achievement of the upper range of our GEO sales guidance and significantly exceeding our adjusted royalty revenue guidance. The Company did not meet its option and other property income guidance due to lower than expected deal flow during the year.
Based on the Company's existing royalties and information available from its counterparties, we expect GEO sales to range from 10,000 to 12,000 GEOs in 2025. The noted decrease in expected GEOs compared to 2024 is due to EMX's heavy exposure to copper-based assets, specifically, Caserones and Timok. With copper prices being relatively stable, a significant increase in gold prices will have a negative impact on the GEOs of a copper-based asset.
Guidance in 2025 is based on public forecasts, other disclosure by the owners and operators of our assets, historical performance, and management's understanding of the underlying producing assets. Additionally, the Company may receive information from the owners and operators of the properties, which the Company is not permitted to disclose to the public pursuant to the underlying agreement or the information has not been prepared in accordance with Canadian disclosure standards, including National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").
[1]Assumed commodity prices of $2,668/oz gold and $4.26/lb copper based on CIBC Global Mining Group's Consensus Commodity Price Forecasts ("Consensus Pricing") published on March 3, 2025, which the Company believes to be reliable for the purposes of guidance. [2]See news released dated March 25, 2024. Assumed commodity prices of $1,939/oz gold and $3.89/lb copper based on Consensus Pricing published on January 2, 2024. [3]Refer to the "Non-IFRS financial measures" section below or on page 44 of the Q4 2024 MD&A for more information on each non-IFRS financial measure.
Outlook
Capital Management
We have established the following capital allocation goals for 2025:
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Achieve a 20% decrease in operating expenditures when compared to 2024, primarily resulting from a decrease in generative expenditures;
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Continued return of capital through a renewed Normal-Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB") program in 2025;
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Implementation of a measured and consistent debt repayment strategy; and
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Evaluation of a potential revolving credit facility available to EMX to fund royalty acquisitions.
Portfolio Growth
The Company is excited about the prospect for continued growth in the portfolio for 2025 and the coming years. The drivers for near and long term growth in cash flow will come from the large deposits at Caserones in Chile and Timok in Serbia. At Caserones, Lundin Mining Corporation has initiated an exploration program which is intended to expand mineral resources and mineral reserves while at the same time looking to increase throughput at the plant. At Timok, Zijin Mining Group Co. ("Zijin") continues to develop the lower zone. Zijin also highlighted a recently discovered exploration target south of the Cukaru Peki mine and within EMX's royalty footprint. Analysis of recent satellite imagery over the Brestovac license, which contains the Cukaru Peki Mine and is covered by EMX's royalty, shows substantial development of new drill pads with numerous drill rigs visible in the images in the southeast corner of the license.
In Türkiye, Gediktepe continues to perform well and beats its production forecast for 2024 and the new owner/operator of Gediktepe highlighted potential for additional oxide gold and polymetallic sulfide mineralization beyond the currently defined resources.
We anticipate the recently announced $10 million acquisition of a royalty on the Chapi Copper Mine property in Peru will begin contributing to royalty revenue in the first half of 2026. We are excited by the addition of a high-quality copper royalty to the portfolio that has excellent upside development and exploration potential located in the prolific Paleocene-Eocene copper-molybdenum porphyry belt of Southern Peru.
AbraSilver Resource Corp. ("AbraSilver") continues to advance Diablillos in Argentina and announced results from a pre-feasibility study in December 2024. Additionally, we are due to receive at $7 million property payment from AbraSilver in 2025. New and compelling exploration results were also announced at the Viscaria copper-iron-silver development project in Sweden in Q3 2024. These developments are all examples of the upside optionality that exists throughout EMX's global royalty portfolio.
EMX is well positioned to identify and pursue new royalty and investment opportunities in 2025, while continuing to grow a pipeline of royalty generation properties. As the Company continues to generate revenues from its producing royalty assets and from other option, advance royalty and pre-production payments across its global asset portfolio, various opportunities for capital redeployment will be evaluated. Such opportunities may include the direct acquisition of royalties, continued organic generation of royalties through partner funded projects and purchase of select strategic investments.
Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 GEOs1Sold and Adjusted Royalty Revenue1by Asset
The following table is a summary of GEOs1sold and adjusted royalty revenue1for the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2023:
| | | 2024 | | | 2023 | | | | | | | | | | | GEOs Sold | | | Revenue (in thousands) | | | GEOs Sold | | | Revenue (in thousands) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Caserones | | 685 | | $ | 1,824 | | | 1,707 | | $ | 3,374 | | | Timok | | 423 | | | 1,127 | | | 477 | | | 943 | | | Gediktepe | | 1,430 | | | 3,805 | | | 1,335 | | | 2,638 | | | Leeville | | 414 | | | 1,101 | | | 589 | | | 1,164 | | | Other producing royalties | | 231 | | | 614 | | | 159 | | | 315 | | | Advanced royalty payments | | 107 | | | 286 | | | 156 | | | 309 | | | Total | | 3,290 | | $ | 8,757 | | | 4,424 | | $ | 8,743 | |
In Q4 2024 there was an adjustment at Caserones to decrease revenue by $0.4 million due to lower than expected revenue in the prior quarter. A similar adjustment was made in Q4 2023, however it resulted in a $1.1 million increase in revenue due to higher than expected revenues in the prior quarter. Excluding these adjustments, royalty revenue at Caserones for both Q4 2024 and Q4 2023 was $2.2 million.
The following table is a summary of GEOs1sold and adjusted royalty revenue1for the year ended December 31, 2024 and 2023:
| | | 2024 | | | 2023 | | | | | | | | | | | GEOs Sold | | | Revenue (in thousands) | | | GEOs Sold | | | Revenue (in thousands | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Caserones | | 3,917 | | $ | 9,263 | | | 5,351 | | $ | 10,407 | | | Timok2 | | 2,212 | | | 5,216 | | | 4,438 | | | 8,632 | | | Gediktepe | | 4,999 | | | 11,954 | | | 3,442 | | | 6,694 | | | Leeville | | 1,787 | | | 4,264 | | | 1,612 | | | 3,135 | | | Other producing royalties | | 747 | | | 1,812 | | | 637 | | | 1,238 | | | Advanced royalty payments | | 235 | | | 558 | | | 302 | | | 588 | | | Adjusted royalty revenue | | 13,897 | | $ | 33,067 | | | 15,782 | | $ | 30,694 | |
The decrease in revenue at Caserones for the year ended December 31, 2024 was primarily attributed to the delay of the sale of approximately 20,000 tonnes of copper concentrates that were planned to be sold in December 2024 due to operational and weather related issues. EMX expects to recognize the revenue associated with the delayed shipments in 2025.
[1]Refer to the "Non-IFRS financial measures" section below or on page 44 of the Q4 2024 MD&A for more information on each non-IFRS financial measure. [2]Includes $4.8 million (2,480 GEOs sold) in catch-up payments received in 2023 from the Timok royalty that relate to prior periods.
Shareholder Information
The Company's filings for the year are available on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca, on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov, and on EMX's website at www.EMXroyalty.com. Financial results were prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.
About EMX - EMX is a precious, and base metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "EMX". Please see www.EMXroyalty.comfor more information.
For further information contact:
| David M. Cole President and CEO Phone: (303) 973-8585 Dave@EMXroyalty.com | Stefan Wenger Chief Financial Officer Phone: (303) 973-8585 SWenger@EMXroyalty.com | Isabel Belger Investor Relations Phone: +49 178 4909039 IBelger@EMXroyalty.com |
_ Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release._
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain "forward looking information" or "forward looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding the future price of copper, gold and other metals, the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the Company's growth strategy and expectations regarding the guidance for 2025 and future outlook, including revenue and GEO estimates, anticipated reductions in operating expenditures, repayment of outstanding debt and the timing thereof, the acquisition of additional royalty and royalty generation interests and other investment opportunities, the purchase of securities pursuant to the Company's NCIB, exploration and development plans at the Company's royalty properties and the expected timing thereof or other statements that are not statements of fact. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "plans," "projects," "estimates," "assumes," "intends," "strategy," "goals," "objectives," "potential," "possible" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events, conditions or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material assumptions, including those listed below, which could prove to be significantly incorrect, including disruption to production at any of the mineral properties in which the Company has a royalty, or other interest; estimated capital costs, operating costs, production and economic returns; estimated metal pricing (including the estimates from theCIBC Global Mining Group's Consensus Commodity Price Forecasts published on March 3, 2025), metallurgy, mineability, marketability and operating and capital costs, together with other assumptions underlying the Company's mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates; the expected ability of any of the properties in which the Company holds a royalty, or other interest to develop adequate infrastructure at a reasonable cost; assumptions that all necessary permits and governmental approvals will remain in effect or be obtained as required to operate, develop or explore the various properties in which the Company holds an interest; and the activities on any on the properties in which the Company holds a royalty, or other interest will not be adversely disrupted or impeded by development, operating or regulatory risks or any other government actions.
Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, failure to maintain or receive necessary approvals, changes in business plans and strategies, market conditions, share price, best use of available cash, copper, gold and other commodity price volatility, discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries, mining operational and development risks relating to the parties which produce the gold or other commodity the Company will purchase, regulatory restrictions, activities by governmental authorities (including changes in taxation), currency fluctuations, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition.
_Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the impact of general business and economic conditions, the absence of control over mining operations from which the Company will receive royalties from, and risks related to those mining operations, including risks related to international operations, government and environmental regulation, actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, risks in the marketability of minerals, fluctuations in the price of gold and other commodities, global trade uncertainties, fluctuation in foreign exchange rates and interest rates, stock market volatility, as well as those factors discussed in the Company's MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the most recently filed Annual Information Form ("AIF") for the year ended December 31, 2024, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the AIF and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR+ at_www.sedarplus.ca_and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are contained or incorporated by reference, except in accordance with applicable securities laws._